Your own inaugural week speeches may be historic

But you don't have to leave your hometown to be part of the Library's American Folklife Center plan to preserve ordinary American's experience of this historic inaugural ceremony through a "once-in-a-lifetime documentary project."

The Library wants people to record sermons and orations delivered "at churches, synagogues, mosques and other places of worship, as well as before humanist congregations and other secular gatherings" during Inauguration Week 2009 and donate them to the Library of Congress."

Head here for details and pass the word to your pastor/rabbi/imam/orator-of-choice that their own speeches could be preserved for researchers, scholars, students, and the public for generations.

You can also get a look at the Lincoln Inaugural Bible for yourself when it goes on display at the Library of Congress. "With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition" will be in Washington DC Feb. 12-May 9, then move over the next two years to Sacramento, Chicago, Indianapolis, Atlanta and Chicago.

The 1853 Bible was at hand when Lincoln gave the address, in March 1861,* that appealed to "the better angels of our nature."

*I had to ask... Did you notice that Lincoln was inaugurated in March? I thought the presidential swearing in was always January 20. (Such a baby boomer notion to think all history begins with us...) From the time of the Continental Congress until 1933, Presidents were inaugurated on March 4 -- originally because it took months for word of election victories to reach across the country and for the newly elected to reach Washington. The 20th Amendment, which set the terms and dates for presidential and congressional terms, did away with the no-longer-necessary lag time. Franklin Roosevelt was the first to be sworn in on January 20 -- his second term.

Photo by Library of Congress: The Lincoln Inaugural Bible will be used by Barack Obama at his inauguration.

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About Cathy Lynn Grossman

Cathy Lynn Grossman is too fidgety to meditate. But talking about visions and values, faith and ethics lights her up. Join in at Faith & Reason. More about Cathy.